Mecardo Insights - Leadership and other musings
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- US & World News
- Sep 05, 2018
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From the Mecardo Blog (viewed by all) - Posted by Robert Herrmann - Mecardo.
Leadership is often sought as some sort of pinnacle in a chosen field, something to be aspired to when seemingly other more humdrum accomplishments have been completed.
In fact, this is the deception of leadership, the gaining of leadership is not the end game, it is just the beginning of a responsibility that few are prepared for and most attempt to “learn on the job.”
Whether leading a company, a movement, an industry or a team, good leaders can achieve great things via their team, members or staff. The obvious paradox is that poor leaders can hold back the organisation or team leaving an unfulfilled or sometimes worse situation.
Martin Luther King Jr thought that “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.”
Some references about leadership have the ideal leader “leading from behind”, that is supporting and empowering the team to collectively achieve their best. This model will at times require the leader to step forward and drive the direction, blunt the challenges or deal with adversity, but mostly they are in a supporting role moulding consensus.
There are also numerous examples of leaders who refuse to move aside, believing that theirs is the only way and that they are far and away the best person for the job, sometimes holding this view in perpetuity. behind”, that is supporting and empowering the team to collectively achieve their best.
This model will at times require the leader to step forward and drive the direction, blunt the challenges or deal with adversity, but mostly they are in a supporting role moulding consensus.
Great leaders from their earliest days in the role, understand that a true measure of leadership will be grooming a replacement leader who is more capable and eventually seen as a better leader than themselves. Great leaders strive to employ staff who will exceed their ability and subsequently replace them.
Another test for leaders is to not only manage the current situation but importantly to prepare the organisation for 10, 20 & 50 years into the future. Modern business reporting and electoral cycles are the antitheses of long-term planning; the pressure is on delivering the next financial result or winning the upcoming election.
A common business strategy is to “Re-invent” the business model, with a timeframe of “every 10 years” considered ideal. If undertaken successfully, this process will future-proof the business, providing a continuous system to not only resist stagnation but also to maintain competitiveness and stave of threats.
While this is daunting for some managers, and not without risk, it really is a non-negotiable if the business is to thrive over the long term.
As Matthew S. Olson and Derek van Bever demonstrate in their book Stall Points, “once a company runs up against a major stall in its growth, it has less than a 10% chance of ever fully recovering.”
Many successful businesses and organisations follow the S curve of success, where after beginning slowly success comes rapidly before tapering off. This provides a clue to the opportunity for re-invention; go hard on re-invention at the top of the S curve.
In a practical sense, what this means is that when success is at its peak enjoy the good times, but also invest time, effort and money into preparing for the future. The financial windfall at the peak of the S curve should be the catalyst for future proofing the business, and the manager must provide this lead with a vision well over the existing horizon.
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